Sinner

 Funny how religious people are considered to be self-righteous, when my guess is that most feel themselves to be quite the opposite- in need of some saving from themselves. I am one of those- alongside Pope Francis, inter alia, who are happy to be labelled by that old-fashioned phrase 'a sinner'.

It puts me in my place, a constant recipient of mercy and grace, striving for some little holiness, and helps me see that in spite of all the small triumphs I might put up in self-defence, if called to account for my actions, most are done with the most mixed of motives, and the golden nimbus I would put around my self, my actions and thoughts is made of the basest metal. 

Long ago there was a fruitless time when scientists of a sort looked for a way which base metal could be turned to gold. To no avail. but George Herbert built on this idea, although the riches he found were of a different order - 'this is the famous stone/which turneth all to gold/for that which God doth touch and own/cannot for less be told. 

So a sinner, yes, but with mercy and grace, something more- I'm a work in progress.